Report from Pearson Namchosta, on recent e-Learning workshop hosted and run by Malawi College of Health Sciences,
Malawi College of Health Sciences recently ran an e-learning resource development workshop in Salima from 9th to 13th July 2012. The workshop was an important milestone in the teaching and learning at the College.
One of the highlights of the workshop was the opening of the workshop by the Executive Director of the Malawi College of Health Sciences. This aspect showed that the workshop was held in high esteem by the College’s top most Management. For this reason, there was high level of enthusiasm shown by the participants at the workshop.
In his opening speech, the Executive Director thanked the E-learning Project Management from the University of Edinburgh for all the efforts in helping Malawi College of Health Sciences acquire skills of how to develop E-learning resources using Articulate Software. He made special mention of Professor David Dewhurst for his keen interest in championing e-learning and for working tirelessly to develop e-learning skills and computer technology at the College. He also thanked the Project Management in Scotland for funding the workshop.
During the workshop participants were encouraged to develop resources in groups. This was done in order to let participants continue learning from each other, to share ideas and work collaboratively.
Participants produced resources to be used by students in Programmes such as Basic Sciences, Clinical Medicine and Nursing. The image below shows one of the materials that were created.
An example of an Articulate Engage Resource
One of the latent outcomes of the workshop is that lecturers have showed a sense of responsibility of the e-learning activities as they continue editing and improving the developed resources even after the workshop. For many students, e-learning has opened up a new, much more flexible and accessible world of learning that was previously inexistent to them. E-learning is empowering them to manage their own learning in the most appropriate way for each learner.
The College is looking forward to the next workshop in September where more lecturers will learn the skills in producing electronic resources. More and more, lecturers and even Campus Directors at Malawi College of Health Sciences are realising that E-learning is the catalyst that is very important in the whole process of learning in the Medical Field.
